Need some help with this problem.

I initially bought a Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R motherboard and used it with 2gb Crucial Ballistix RAM. From day one I was not able to run a clean pass of memtest at 1066mhz or even 800mhz no matter what I set for the timings or voltage. I upgraded the BIOS on the mobo (to F2) and I was able to run memtest clean at 800mhz and 2.2V, but 1066mhz would still not fly. But the weird thing is if I run one stick at a time it runs fine, no memtest errors. So I figured the RAM is fine. After using the computer for a bit I began seeing BSOD and the BIOS would recover from disk upon reboot. I figured the board was bad, so I sent it back in exchange for a Asus P5K-E.

I received the new Asus board and the memory is unable to pass a clean memtest again (at 800mhz or 1066mhz, and 2.2V). I ran one stick at a time, this time the memtest is failing for each individual stick. So I'm pretty sure the RAM is bad.

I am sending the Crucial RAM in for replacement. But should I stay away from Crucial RAM and get something like Corsair and OCZ Platinum? I figure I don't even need 1066mhz since I've seen some tests indicating there is very little benefit from 1066mhz RAM.

Thanks.
Reza

Its the motherboard not the RAM. DDR2 800 RAM seems like the native limit. P35 Gigabyte boards seems to have a problem with native DDR2 800+ RAM, but the native DDR2 800 can be OCed to the same level and it will work fine.

I'm running an Asus P5K-E now, same problem. So I'd be shocked if this was the second bad mobo.

I would say that crucial is fine, but that was before I had failures. I had one stick fail after 2 months of use, rma'd it and now have had another stick fail after another two months of use. These were DDR2 800 ballistix tracers, 2 GB kit. 4-4-4-12 EPP

I think Shadow is referring to both those boards being based on P35 chipsets? And the chipset has a pb with ram faster than ddr2 800 speeds?

Probably safe to go with corsair. But I am switching from crucial to Mushkin since I have had success with them in the past and they are a Colorado co. I understand they also use micron d9 chips for their epp memory.

So I might just get PC-6400 in that case, since I've read there is very little benefit from the extra money spent on PC-8500. Is that a fair statement?

^Yes, get DDR2 800 and OC it.

For some reason most P35 boards seems to have a problem with native DDR2 800+ RAM.

I too have problems, Abit Fatality FP-IN9 SLI mb (NF650i SLI chipset).
I've got Ballistix Tracer PC8500..

No matter what I set them too, I cant run a single clean memtest.
Get random BSOD, processes dying, corrupt files (happens a lot in steam games, so I have to redownload it many times)..

Yes, a lot of problems.. Not nice, I bought 2 x 2gb sets and thought this was sweet.

Does anyone know if they work better in NF680I? I'm considering swapping mainboard.

yeah, btw. I have tried IT ALL, 2.2V, different timings, auto timings, different clocks, synch or no synch with cpu, linked, unlinked, etc. nothing gives me a clean memtest